Former Tasmanian senator and Catholic priest Michael Tate is being remembered as a compassionate and generous man.
The South Hobart parish priest died in Hobart yesterday aged 80.
His friend and colleague Fr Mike Delaney said Fr Tate was loved.
“[He was] the real sign of a priest — someone who gives himself to his people,” Fr Delaney said.
“Just recently he rang me and asked me whether I could follow up with somebody who he’d been seeing but they’d moved into my parish … he didn’t want them to got lost in the system.
“He’d cut to the point, but he also had an incredible compassion for his people.”
Michael Tate was parish priest at South Hobart. (ABC News: Jake Grant)
Tasmania’s Archbishop Tony Ireland administered the last rites to Fr Tate not long before he died in hospital.
“In many ways Fr Michael was one of a kind, gifted intellectually, a powerful communicator, and an extraordinarily generous and faithful pastor who loved his people,”
Archbishop Ireland said.
Archbishop Tony Ireland says Michael Tate was “one of a kind”. (ABC News: Ebony ten Broeke)
Federal Labor minister Julie Collins said Fr Tate was “a devoted member of the Labor Party” who “leaves behind a legacy of integrity, faith, and service to others”.
Fr Tate was born in Sydney and educated at St Virgil’s College in Hobart.
He studied law at the University of Tasmania, graduating with first class honours in 1968.
He went on to obtain a master’s degree in theology from the University of Oxford in 1971.
In 1972 he started lecturing in constitutional law at the University of Tasmania, and was appointed dean of the law faculty in 1977.
Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff said Fr Tate “had the ability to see beyond divisions and to find common ground”.
“I always enjoyed and appreciated Fr Tate’s company and guidance over the years.
“Many, in the rough and tumble of politics, on all sides of the chamber would have appreciated his kind reassurance, encouragement and insightful knowledge and guidance.“
Michael Tate is being remembered for his compassion. (ABC News: Jake Grant)
A years-long fight against conscription
Fr Tate’s opposition to the Vietnam war, especially the government’s conscription policy, led him to join the Labor Party.
He was elected to the Senate in 1977, representing Tasmania, and was justice minister in the Hawke and Keating governments from 1987 to 1993.
He continued to push his opposition to conscription.
In 1983 he introduced a private senator’s bill to amend the National Service Act to allow for conscientious objection to participation in particular military conflicts. While this bill was stalled, he continued to push for legislative change.
In 1992 the Keating government’s Defence Legislation Amendment Bill, which included provision for particular conscientious beliefs, passed through parliament.
The following year, after he was dropped from the ministry, Fr Tate left politics.
In 1994 he was appointed as Australia’s Ambassador to the Holy See and to the Hague, and in 1996 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his distinguished service to Australia.
An early vocation long deferred
In a statement, the Archdiocese of Hobart said that when Fr Tate left his diplomatic post, he told Pope John Paul II that he would start studying for the Catholic priesthood.
In 1999 he told the ABC he was answering the call of an early vocation long deferred.
“I do find it a bit scary at times but also, not entirely artificial but there is a sense of theatre, I think, about being a Catholic priest, most obviously in the liturgy itself, but also in your role in the community,” he said at the time.
“So that leads to a certain acting and I suppose, in a sense, you’re preparing for a role. But I just hope that I can integrate my own personality with that theatrical appearance from time to time.”
He was ordained a priest in May 2000 and served as a parish priest in several southern Tasmanian parishes.
He also spent some time as Vicar-General, a senior leadership position within the Archdiocese.
Michael Tate said the priesthood was an early vocation long deferred. (ABC News: Jake Grant)
At the time of his ordination he reflected on the change from politics to the priesthood and of not knowing where he would be posted as parish priest, telling the ABC:
“I’m trying to practice being docile and obedient and humble, which you might think is not all that easy for a politician but I’m doing my best and I’m sure whatever placement [the bishop] puts me in I’ll find very satisfying.”
Fr Tate founded the Way to St James, a pilgrimage in the Huon Valley south of Hobart, inspired by Spain’s Camino de Santiago. It was held as a virtual event in 2021 and 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When it returned as an in-person event in 2023, it attracted about 800 walkers from around the world, including 80 in person.
“We’ve tapped into a universal yearning, I think, to have natural beauty contouring the soul,” Fr Tate said during the 2023 event.
Father Michael Tate founded the Way to St James pilgrimage in Tasmania’s Huon Valley. (ABC News: Loretta Lohberger)
Fr Delaney said he had spoken to a number of people yesterday to share memories of Fr Tate.
“One person said he was a complicated man but, by God, you knew where you stood with him,”
he said.
“There’ll be a lot of people who are going to be very, very sadly mourning his passing because he was a good and great man.”
The Archdiocese of Hobart said funeral arrangements for Fr Tate would be announced in the coming days.
